Shropshire Children & Young People’sCultural Consortium

Research report to inform future development activity

Research and report compiled by Mandy Fowler, Independent Consultant with support from Sally Fort, Independent Consultant

April 2015

Contents

Page1. Review and Summary of findings 6

- Context of research 6- Research brief 7 - Methodology 7- Key findings 8- Key recommendations 9

2. Shropshire Situational analysis 102.1 Population 102.2 Population of CYP in Shropshire 112.3 Comparison to other rural areas 122.4 Education in Shropshire 122.5 Shropshire’s Safeguarding Children Board 132.6 Shropshire’s provision of youth activities 14

3.Review of current activities being delivered 15 for CYP in Shropshire

3.1 Outline of Consortium Members 153.2 Findings from current Consortium Members 163.3 Other CYP cultural activity being delivered in Shropshire 22

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3.4 Arts Award, Arts Awards supporters, Arts Mark and 26 Hub School3.5 Further Schools analysis 273.6 Apprenticeships, Work Experience and Young People’s 28 training opportunities3.7 Networks within Shropshire’s current CYP offer 293.8 Funding of Shropshire’s current CYP offer 303.9 Specialism’s within Shropshire’s current CYP offer 313.10 Case studies of the impact of Shropshire’s current 33

CYP work3.11 The voice of CYP in developing and designing 33

opportunities and programmes3.12 Conclusions as to the current CYP activity taking place 34

in Shropshire3.13 Key recommendations from analysis of current activity 37

4. Future activity and development 38

4.1 Priority of CYP work currently and in the future 384.2 Future activity plans 404.3 Future funding of CYP activity 424.4 What the organisations need to develop further 424.5 Sustainability of the organisations 43

Page4.6 Working together and building strength 434.7 Conclusions and key recommendations for future plans and developments 44

5. SWOT analysis 45

Appendix 1 Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committees’ 46Analysis of 0-19 year olds

Appendix 2 Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committees’ 47analysis of need

Appendix 3 Other Cultural activity and youth activity 49

providers in Shropshire (invited to participate in research)

Appendix 4 Analysis of Schools’ Cultural Participation 50

Appendix 5 Case studies of the impact of Shropshire’s current CYP offer 61Appendix 6 CYP best practice – with a particular rural focus

CYP national policy analysis

About the researchers:Mandy Fowler

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Mandy has delivered the majority of the research for this report, with a particular focus on the situational analysis of Shropshire and the consortium members.

Mandy is a freelance consultant working as a researcher, evaluator, trainer and mentor. From her base in rural Shropshire, Mandy works across a broad range of strategic cultural development, evaluative and practice led activity across the West Midlands and Wales.

Mandy was the Manager of an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation for eight years before moving to a freelance career and is currently a board member for Oriel Davies Gallery, Powys, Wales where she works strategically with the staff, including the organisation’s renowned learning and engagement team.

At practice level Mandy has a particular specialism in delivering cultural activity in rural and non-traditional cultural spaces, enabling new audiences to engage in cultural activity, working with clients such as the National Trust, English Heritage, the Canal & River Trust and the Library of Birmingham.

Mandy has worked with many of the cultural organisations in Shropshire, including the local authority, museums and archives service and spent time undertaking development work with the award winning creative media education, production and development charity Rural Media Company, working nationally with young people, especially those who are at risk of becoming, not in education, employment or training, and marginalised communities, such as the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller community.

Mandy is involved in local government in Shropshire as the elected vice chair of a rural parish council and is a member of a Local Joint Committee. She was previously the Chair of a Shropshire Primary School and Early Years setting, with a special interest in cross-curricular learning.

Sally FortSally has researched and delivered the best practice recommendations and the best practice case studies for this report. Sally is a freelance consultant specialising in arts and cultural learning and engagement. She grew up in, and is based in the rural South Pennines, and is currently involved in several local initiatives, from grass roots to major ACE strategic programmes, to develop quality of life for children, young people and families in an area with very few arts and cultural venues and a sparsely populated arts and cultural infrastructure.

Sally worked as Head of Community & Education at The Lowry, Education Manager at Design Museum, and Outreach Officer at University of the Arts before moving into a full time freelance career.

Since then Sally has worked on a myriad of contracts around the potential of children and young people including working as Artsmark Associate and Arts Award Moderator for Trinity College London; Engagement Associate for Curious Minds; Toolkit writer for CAPE UK; CYP Research & Evaluation Consultant for Manchester City Council’s cultural strategy team; Evaluation Consultant for Liverpool Find Your Talent; Evaluation Consultant / Creative Agent for Creative Partnerships Greater Manchester; and Research Consultant for Earlyarts UK including research and development work for Youth Music and Arts Council of Northern

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Ireland.

At practice level Sally has worked as Arts Development Manager for Spearfish, a street arts company who specialise in working with hard to reach teenagers; Regional Manager for Ideas Foundation, running creative industry projects and placements for 14-19 year olds who are talented and are, or are at risk of becoming, not in education, employment or training; and Visual Arts Participation Manager for cultural festivals in Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

AcknowledgementsMandy Fowler would like to thank the following people for their contribution to the research: Consortium Members; Sian Kerry, Alyson Lanning, Rebecca Farkas, Lesley McKnight, Craig Reeves, Rose Horner, Sue Gainsborough, Francesca Spikernell, Sam Newth, Annabel Gittins and Alexa Pugh.In addition, Mandy would like to thank the Arts Connect staff; Rob Elkington, Leslie Hampson and Angela Hind. Lisa Bedford and Steve Cunningham, Senior Community Enablement Officers, Helen Hughes, Ludlow Assembly Rooms Richard Parkes, Shropshire Youth Association, Joy Lamont, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Cath Landles, Shropshire Hills AONB and Noel Dunne, Creative Alliance

Sally Fort would like to thank the following organisations for contributing best practice to the report; Rural Media Company, Winchester Theatre, Blaize Theatre Company, Oriel Mostyn, Towner Art Gallery, Handmade Parade, Brewery Arts, North Yorkshire Music Action Zone, The Ministry of Stories, Cornerhouse, Action Transport

GlossaryThe researcher has used the following abbreviations in the report: CYP - refers to Children and Young PeopleLJC - refers to Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committee’s. Local Joint Committees (LJCs) enable people across Shropshire to get more involved in the decision making of the Shropshire Council. There are 21 Local Joint Committees in place, covering the whole of Shropshire Council. Each committee meets four times a year and gives people a chance to meet with their local councilors and to raise issues of concern about services or problems within their communities. Local Joint Committees are legally constituted, decision-making committees and comprise of the local Shropshire councilors together with representatives from each of the town and parish councils within the area. Local Joint Committee’s are supported by Shropshire Council’s Community Enablement Team.ACE – refers to Arts Council EnglandNPO – refers to Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations

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1. Review and Summary of key findings

Context of the research

Shropshire Children & Young People’s Cultural Consortium is a recently formed network of arts & cultural organisations working with children and young people (aged 0-25) in Shropshire. Supported by Arts Connect (Arts Council England funded Bridge organisation for the West Midlands), the consortium have come together to devise a shared vision for the delivery of cultural activity for children and young people in Shropshire, with the overarching aim to offer inspiration, aspiration and progression by supporting young people as consumers and producers of art and culture. Ultimately, the consortium have articulated that they want to develop a cultural offer for young people that broadens horizons and enriches lives and a sustainable legacy through high profile, flagship activity that brings investment.

The consortium members are a mix of venues and peripatetic organisations; The Hive, Wem Town Hall, Theatre Severn, MediaActive, Scrappies / Lesley McKnight, Meadow Arts, Arts Alive, Pentabus and Shropshire Council Arts service, more recently Shropshire Council’s Libraries Service and Shropshire Music Service have joined the consortium.

Currently, the shared vision has been articulated as:

We want children and young people to have opportunities to be inspired by the arts, to be able to reflect on those experiences, incorporate a creative approach into their

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wider lives, decide if they want to pursue it in any way and know how to do that.

We want to build an aspirational cultural offer for children and young people in Shropshire that is accessible, engaging, diverse, high quality, inspiring and fun. We want it delivered in and out of education with ambition and quality by arts organisations adequately resourced to fulfill an agenda to provide positive experiences and accreditation.

We want to generate knowledge and skills for children and young people and provide progression routes that enable young people to build their capacity to be dynamic and to succeed in the wider world.

To support this vision, the consortium commissioned this research, to develop a clearer profile of current cultural activity for children and young people (age 0-25) in Shropshire.

Research brief

This research will help the consortium to:

- Produce a detailed picture and analysis of the current situation county wide (who is doing what, where and with whom)

- Advocate for arts and culture for children and young people - Gain a greater understanding of the capacity of the sector in Shropshire, that

has a particular expertise/focus on children and young people - Support the development of the consortium’s work as individual practitioners

and organisations - Identify gaps, opportunities and shared development priorities for the

consortium - Share resources and collaborate to address development opportunities - Generate new investment and markets

Methodology

The research was undertaken using desk research to create a situational analysis of the current strategic context for policy regarding children and young people in Shropshire. This research has drawn upon information from Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committees’ (LJC) analysis of young people in 2014, developed by the Community Enablement Team (the full LJC analysis has been distributed to consortium members under separate cover), Shropshire’s Children, Young People and Families Plan 2014, current education department data and Shropshire’s

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Safeguarding Children Board Strategic Plan.

Best practice case studies of CYP work were developed through a desk based and telephone research approach, drawing upon national practice with a particular focus on the delivery of children and young people’s cultural activity within a rural context. These are presented in Appendix 6 and serve as best practice examples to be drawn upon and learnt from.

The consortium members fed into the research initially through a written survey approach and followed up through further email contact, telephone and face-to-face interviews. In addition, the researcher approached Shropshire Council’s Museums, Archives services to take part. The researcher also approached other organisations that were identified as delivering cultural activity within Shropshire, to add details of their CYP focused activity, through a written survey. However, there was little response to this approach. In addition, the local authority Arts Development Officer supplied further information relating to the organisations that are not part of the consortium, but deliver CYP cultural activity.

The researcher approached the research within the context of their ethical statement enabling accessibly and transparency and was mindful of business sensitivities within the sharing of information. Where it has been deemed not appropriate, partnership and funding details have not been attributed to any particular organisation.

Key findings

Key findings of the report have found that there is a demonstration of:

£943,891 worth of activity was delivered in the county funded through earned and grant income in the financial year 2014/15 (£370,813 through earned income – a large proportion of this is from the Theatre Severn ticket sales income, and £673,078 through grant income, with £300,000 of this being through an Arts Council delivery grant to Shropshire Music Service. Further breakdown of these figures is outlined in section 3.8)

a breakdown of cultural activity provision that involves children and young people across the county indicates that there were 65,600 opportunities to engage through viewing and attending cultural activity undertaken by CYP in Shropshire in 2014, and 57,096 opportunities to directly participate - to be producers of cultural activity. These participatory opportunities are particularly low amongst a large section of consortium members, especially within visual arts and literature art forms

there is good art form coverage within the county, however, there are fewer opportunities to view/attend dance, visual arts and literature activity

there is a good reach of activity across the county, with indications of reaching good levels of CYP, however there is heavy concentration of activity in the Shrewsbury area and a geographical pocket of high concentration of

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young people and low levels of activity being delivered in Cleobury Mortimer - this been identified as a cold spot

there are low levels of Arts Award opportunities being delivered in the county (121 have been moderation in the past year, 113 of those were delivered by six individual schools)

there are low levels of relationships with schools amongst the majority of consortium organisations, however, the local authority arts and libraries services have more relationships (Arts Service 54 and Libraries 65 schools) and Shropshire Music Service has relationships with 101 schools

15 of schools (9%) have higher levels of cultural activity engagement with external providers, whilst 15 schools (9%) have no engagement with external providers and 57 schools (35%) have lower levels, only engaging with one form of external provider

there are limited opportunities for CYP to be involved in the direct development and design of CYP activity

there is a good level of expertise within the county across art form knowledge and reach, with good national partnerships including the BFI and rural touring networks, however there is a perception of limited visibility of the work of Shropshire based organisations across the region and nationally

there are limited opportunities for CYP to access cultural apprenticeships, work experience and skills based learning. 187 opportunities were available in the last year (40% of these were delivered through MediaActive and 34% through the Libraries service)

there is limited articulation of the impact of the CYP work that is undertaken in order for advocacy to take place, particularly on a county wide level

there are funding and capacity threats to the delivery of CYP activity, particularly from Shropshire Council’s funding cuts and the reduction of Arts Council England funding

there is a willingness within the consortium to work together to advocate for the CYP work that is being delivered, to create and strengthen partnerships and consider new ways of working and to generate new investment and markets. There is also a great willingness to consider best practice and to work closely with Arts Connect to facilitate the consortium’s development

Key recommendations

Throughout the report there are a number of key evidence based recommendations that have been made. Here is a summary of the most important recommendations:

1. Consider developing key terms and conditions for working together as a consortium, that outline areas around sharing knowledge and information – there was a little resistance to sharing some information through the research process. Also agree terms for annual collecting of CYP activity data to update that aspect of this report

2. Undertake training as a consortium that considers best practice within delivering CYP activity, particularly around the area of enabling CYP to be

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involved in the development and design of activity3. Adopt Arts Council England’s seven quality principles approach to the

delivery of CYP work (outlined in Appendix 6) 4. Develop more participatory opportunities for CYP in line with ACE seven

quality principles and national best practice (as outlined in Appendix 6)5. Develop an advocacy document for the current work of CYP in Shropshire,

tailored to those areas where advocacy is needed, giving the work a strategic context within the Shropshire situational analysis and drawing upon the impact of work that is being delivered – (the best practice case-studies are an example of this)

6. Develop a strategy and objectives to advocate for cultural CYP work to lobby decision makers

7. Draw up objectives and an action plan for the consortium, for delivery of the consortium’s work

8. Increase activity in the identified cold spot9. Strengthen relationships with schools, the education sector and youth

activity in the county and seek representatives to join the consortium (as per best practice outline in Appendix 6)

10. Consider additional consortium members and partners as recommended in the report

* please note that it has been difficult to find data that correlates to the 19-25 age group throughout the report. The LJC data does not relate to this age group. The consortium members were asked to consider the 0-25 age group, it is not clear if the figures that have been presented include the 19-25 age group.

2. Shropshire Situational Analysis

2.1 Population

The county of Shropshire, situated in the West Midlands is a predominately rural county, comprising 306,100 people; there has been an increase of 8% in the population since the 2001 census1 (faster than the 7.8% growth rate of England as a whole). The county's population and economy is centred on four towns: the county town of Shrewsbury, which is culturally and historically important and is located in the centre of the county; Oswestry in the north-west; Bridgnorth to the south east of Shrewsbury, and Ludlow in the south. Other notable market towns include Whitchurch in the north, Market Drayton in the northeast of the county, Much Wenlock to the north west of Bridgnorth, Bishops Castle close to the western border with Powys and Craven Arms north of Ludlow.

98.0% of the county’s population is classified as being in a white ethnic group. This has reduced from 98.8% in 2001, though this is still higher than the England and

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Wales average of 85.9%. Asian or Asian British ethnic groups have the next largest number of people in Shropshire with 1.0% of the population.

The population density in Shropshire is 350 persons per square mile, compared to 1,010 per square mile in England as a whole, making it one of England's most rural and sparsely populated counties.

The fastest growing area in the county in the county town of Shrewsbury, with Bridgnorth seeing the small growth.

The number of older people living in Shropshire is 63,400. This has risen from 51,192 in 2001, a 24.0% rise compared to 10.9% in England and Wales. The number of people aged 85 and over has increased by 35% from 6,211 in 2001 to 8,400 in 2011. This is compared to a 24% rise in England and Wales.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1 Figures taken from the first release 2011 Census (Office for National Statistics, © Crown Copyright 2014): results have been rounded to the nearest 100 and indicate the population in the Shropshire Unitary Authority area.

2.2 Population of Children and Young People in Shropshire

Children and young people, aged 0-19 currently comprises approximately 21% of the county’s population, currently standing at 68,1962. It is more difficult to ascertain the population figures for the age group 19-25, as these are not available as a separate grouping.

Age group figures 2001 (% of county population)

2011 (% of county population)

0-4 15,698 5.4% 5.1%5-14 33,547 12.4% 11.0%15-19 18,951 6.3% 6.2%

The four areas with the highest population of 0-19 year olds in the county indicated within Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committees’ (LJC) analysis of 0-19 year olds are:

Shrewsbury 16,616 (26% of 0-19 in the county)Market Drayton 5,332 (8% of 0-19 in the county)Bridgnorth LJC area 4,169 (6% of 0-19 in the county)Oswestry 3,884 (6% of 0-19 in the county)

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Further, the LJC analysis indicates that the highest density of 0-19 year olds occurs in these four areas:

Oswestry 705.6 0-19 year olds per square mile Shrewsbury 586.6 0-19 year olds per square mileBayston Hill 173.6 0-19 year olds per square mileBridgnorth LJC area 173.6 0-19 year olds per square mile

The LJC analysis further indicates that the highest number of 10-19 year olds living in the most deprived areas of Shropshire are located in:

Shrewsbury 3,203 (37% of total 10-19 year olds)Oswestry 830 (41% of total 10-19 year olds)Whitchurch 622 (36% of total 10-19 year olds)Craven Arms 226 (30% of total 10-19 year olds)

The full Shropshire Council LJC analysis of figures relating to the population of Children and Young People is presented in Appendix 1.

2 Figures taken from Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committees’ (LJC) analysis of young people in 2014. These figures are referred to throughout this report. Point of note there is a discrepancy between the overall census figures of 0-19 years living in Shropshire, figures taken in 2011 and the LJC figures, which were compiled by Shropshire Council in 2014. 2.3 Comparison to other rural areas

Statistical information relating to Shropshire is regular compared to that of Cornwall, a rural county of similar nature.

Cornwall, also a predominately rural county situated in the South West has a bigger population that Shropshire, comprising 535,300 people, however similarly to Shropshire, the population density is 373 persons per square mile. There has been an increase of 6.7% in the population since the last census, a growth rate of 1.3% less than Shropshire. 98.2% of the county is classified as being in a white ethnic group, similar to Shropshire. Children and young people aged 0-19 currently stands at 115,300, 21.5% of the county’s population, a percentage similar to Shropshire’s 21%.

The number of children under 5 in the county has risen by 1.4% since 2001 and there has been a decrease of 2.4% in the number of 5-14 year olds.3

Shropshire (population change between 2001-2011)

Cornwall(population change between 2001-2011)

0-4 -0.3% +1.4%5-14 -1.4% -2.4%

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2.4 Education within the county of Shropshire

Shropshire Council operates a completely comprehensive education system, currently comprising a mix of primary and secondary maintained schools, primary and secondary academy schools, special maintained and special academy school and 1 maintained all through school. In addition, there are 2 further education colleges in Shrewsbury, 1 in Ludlow, 1 special education FE college in Oswestry and 1 FE college in north Shropshire specialising in agricultural activity4.

3 Figures taken from the first release 2011 Census (Office for National Statistics, © Crown Copyright 2014): results have been rounded to the nearest 100

4 Information obtained from Shropshire Council’s website list of maintained school and academies. https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/schools/shropshire-council-list-of-maintained-schools-and-academies/

In addition the county operates a tuition, medical and behaviour support service.

Further analysis of the types of schools and numbers of pupils gives this breakdown:

Number of Schools by type of school

Number of Pupils by type of school

State Funded Primary 129 21,186State Funded Secondary 21 16,224

State Funded Special Schools 2 407Non-maintained Special Schools 0 0

45Pupil Referral Units 1

Independent 28 5,216

All Schools 181 43,080

It is estimated that around 150 children and young people in the county are undertaking elective home education. There is an active home education group who meet to undertake activities together.

2.5 Shropshire’s Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB)

Section 13 of the Children Act 2004, requires each local authority to establish a Local

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Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) for their area and specifies the organisations and individuals (other than the local authority) that should be represented on LSCBs. These are:

• the chief officer of police

• the Local Probation Trust

• the Youth Offending Team

• the NHS Commissioning Board and clinical commissioning groups

• NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts all or most of whose hospitals, establishments and facilities are situated in the local authority area

• Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service)

• the governor or director of any secure training centre in the area of the authority

• the governor or director of any prison in the area of the authority which ordinarily detains children

SSCB, sets out its vision as:

For all children and young people to be happy, healthy, safe and reach their full potential, supported by their families, friends and the wider community5

The SSCB comprises a body of influential leaders who engage with other strategic partnerships, statutory and other partners, front line practitioners, children and young people, parents, carers, and the wider public and operates subgroups and task/finishing groups including: Training, Children with Disabilities and Learning and Improvement.

2.6 Shropshire’s provision of youth activities

From April 2015, Shropshire Council will move to a commissioning model to meet its statutory duty to improve outcomes for young people through its youth activities delivery and from September 2015 will no longer directly deliver youth services. This provision for young people aged between 10-19 and up to 25 for those with learning disabilities, aims to ensure that as many young people as possible can access a wide range of group activities after school, at weekends and in school holidays. The purpose of these activities is to support young people’s wellbeing, development of personal and social education and preparation for adulthood, including young people in their development.

This work will contribute to two key outcome areas in the Shropshire’s Children, Young People and Families Plan 2014 6:

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• Ensuring the emotional wellbeing of children and young people by focusing on prevention and early intervention

• Keeping more children healthy and reducing health inequalities

Shropshire Council have recently announced that a partnership of Shropshire Youth Association (SYA) and Energize Shropshire Telford & Wrekin (STW) has been chosen as its preferred partner to offer support and training to voluntary sector organisations delivering youth activities in Shropshire from 1 February 2015 7.

In addition, Shropshire Council will be using a locality approach, whereby Local Joint Committee’s (LJC) supported by their Member of Council and their local Community Enablement Team, will be responsible for commissioning youth activities for young people in their local area, from suitable activity providers. LJCs will be expected to engage young people in the commissioning decisions at a local level.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5http://www.safeguardingshropshireschildren.org.uk/user_controlled_lcms_area/uploaded_files/Shropshire%20LSCB%20Strategic%20Plan%202014.pdf

6 http://shropshire.gov.uk/media/1216935/Shropshire-CYPF-Plan-2014.pdf

7 http://vcsvoice.org/2015/01/shropshire-council-announces-new-youth-services-support-partner/

Money will be allocated to individual LJC areas according to an evidence based needs assessment, LJCs will act as the commissioner advising Shropshire Council, based on their analysis and discussions, on their preferred approach to supporting youth activities within their locality highlighting opportunities, gaps in existing provision, concerns etc.

At the time of this report, consultation on the future provision of youth activities in the areas where activities are currently funded by Shropshire Council, is underway. These areas are Bishops Castle, Chirbury, Worthen and Clun; Craven Arms; Ludlow and Clee area; Bridgnorth, Worfield, Alveley and Claverley; Shrewsbury; Oswestry; Whitchurch, Market Drayton and Broseley. The new model will be operational from September 2015.

Alongside the analysis of each LJC area presented in Appendix 1, the researcher has undertaken a trawl of each LJC area, examining their list of current existing youth activities that are closely related to cultural activity and the local youth priorities of each area where cultural activity can play a part. Appendix 2.

3. Review of current activity being delivered for CYP in Shropshire

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3.1 Outline of current Consortium Members

The current Shropshire Children & Young People’s Cultural Consortium comprises nine key organisations, Shropshire Libraries Service and the local authority arts officer: The Hive, Arts Alive, Meadow Arts, Theatre Severn, Wem Town Hall, MediaActive, Pentabus, Scrappies / Lesley McKnight, Sam Newth (Shropshire Music Service) Annabel Gittins (Shropshire Libraries Service and Alexa Pugh (Shropshire Council Arts Development Officer). The organisations represent three venues (The Hive, Wem Town Hall and Theatre Severn) – two independent and one local authority, three Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations (Arts Alive, Meadow Arts and Pentabus) who all operate on a peripatetic basis in Shropshire as well as other counties, as well as MediaActive, a peripatetic creative media agency.

All of the organisations are small to medium enterprises with limited staffing and resources, operating charitable or community interest company models, with the exception of Theatre Severn, who are a local authority run venue.

The consortium has articulated a shared vision for arts and culture for young people in Shropshire as outlined at the beginning of this report.

3.2 Findings from current Consortium Members

The researcher undertook a review of the current consortium members to assess what they were currently delivering and plan to deliver within the Shropshire local authority area, their strengths, challenges, opportunities and develop interests with regard to their CYP work over the next few years. This was undertaken through a mixed methodology, first through a written survey approach, followed up with email exchange, telephone calls and face-to-face where necessary.

Some of the consortium members did not separate out activity that is currently taking place and activity that is to be delivered in the future due to ongoing programmes of delivery. Wherever possible the researcher has presented the current and future activity separately.

Arts AliveGeneral descriptionAn Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, Arts Alive act as a rural touring agency for acts, delivering live performances in village hall and community spaces across the county of Shropshire (as well as Herefordshire) for people of all ages. Arts Alive’s sister company, Flicks in the Sticks delivers cinema opportunities within village hall and community spaces across the county.

Current CYP offerThe organisation delivers some live performances for families and early years as part of their general offer. Usually there are up to 6 performances of a show for primary

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aged children in autumn, a family show in winter and an early years company in spring. They offer workshops associated with the performances when available and workshops funded by other development projects – all led by the performance companies. Recent partnership have been with Craftspace, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Shropshire Council Libraries service

They run a young promoters scheme for young people aged 13-16, inviting them to recommend productions that they have seen to be programmed into venues within Shropshire.

The HiveGeneral descriptionAn independent venue in located in Shrewsbury, town centre venue, hosting a variety of diverse arts and cultural activities across all art forms for all ages. Regular weekly programme features: Shrewsbury Youth Theatre, Life Drawing classes, Shrewsbury Jazz Network, Shrewsbury Folk Festival. Shrewsbury Film Society, in addition to live gigs and special events (hip hop artists, Live at the Hive, BBC Introducing, children’s theatre, puppet shows). The venue is also used by the wider community for a variety of purposes including regular hire for commercial purposes.

Current CYP offerThe organisation has a large focus on youth music, funded through programmes such as Youth Music Action Zone. This is delivered within the venue as well as in an outreach capacity across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, working with children and young people who face challenging circumstances, working with looked after children, young carers, young people in Pupil Referral Units (PRU), contracting freelance practitioners to deliver. They also deliver other workshops in filmmaking, animation and youth theatre as well as opportunities to view cultural activity.

Meadow ArtsGeneral descriptionAn Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, delivering contemporary visual art in partnership with heritage and public spaces in Shropshire (as well as other counties).

Current CYP offerCurrent CYP programme is focused to run alongside exhibition programme and public realm work in the format of artist talks, events and workshop programmes, to both families and a formal schools’ programme. In the past year, Meadow Arts have worked in Much Wenlock with William Brookes School and Much Wenlock Poetry Festival.

Pentabus

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General descriptionAn Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, producing theatre production with a rural theme focus, touring nationally to venues, as well as within Shropshire.

Current CYP offerCurrent CYP programme in Shropshire has focused on a young writers programme, the Artistic Director delivered playwriting workshops in secondary schools and colleges across Shropshire to around 110 young people aged 16-25. Worked with 8 young people as part of a group over two terms, where they experienced specialist tuition in playwriting from the Artistic Director, Channel 4 playwright Simon Longman and other playwrights such as Phil Porter. They also had access to playscripts, offers of tickets for shows (Pentabus and others) and 1-2-1 support.

Theatre SevernGeneral descriptionShropshire Council run theatre venue in the centre of Shrewsbury offering performance events, including events for family and formal schools’ audiences.

Current CYP offerOccasionally market dance and drama workshops by performance companies to schools, around attendance of their live performance. The take up on these opportunities are independent of the venue.

Wem Town HallGeneral descriptionIndependent venue in the centre of Wem, offering cinema and performance viewing opportunities and individual cross-art form workshops for all ages as well as working in partnership with other consortium members.

Current CYP offerMonthly session for CYP as part of the ACWM Cinema Network initiative.Young Promoters, Young Curators, Young Programmers – collaborating with Arts Alive, MediaActive, local schools and with young people. Resulting activity has included theatre, cinema, exhibitions (including pan-European British Council funded) and music events, including open mic nights and bands nights.Partnering Media Active as a venue for BFI funded – Adventures in Alternative Cinema.

Programme cinema for children and families – both mainstream and specialist films. Work with schools to offer special screenings as part of their curriculum, as well as Into Film Festival and promote special offers to families via the schools network. Host the BBC Introduction to Classical Music broadcast for schools.Work with Arts Alive to host early years and family theatre.Programme satellite content including Ballet, theatre, music.

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4 to 5 exhibitions per year in gallery – that showcase the creative work of CYP in partnership with local schools and arts organisations.

MediaActiveGeneral descriptionIndependent creative media agency based in Wem Town Hall, newly independent (within the last 12 months) of Wem Town Hall.

Current CYP offerKey programmes:ExCITE programme - funded by partnership investment from Arts Connect – developing a new partnership approach to providing creative industry based work related learning opportunities for young people. BFI Film Audience Network funded – Adventures in Alternative Cinema (focusing on audience development for specialist film and young peoples’ commissioning): Young Programmers workshops (includes looking at specialised film, marketing & branding, event management, customer services, etc), seminars, masterclasses, archive film project (working with regional archives) cinema and pop up screenings curated by young people. Current activity is focusing on 15 years plus.DfE funded BFI Film Academy – an intensive, film industry standard, talent development programme for 16 to 19 year olds, now in its third year. Part of the UK network of BFI delivery partners and are the only Academy to focus purely on animation. They are also funded to support alumni activity and signpost young people to the wider BFI Academy network opportunities. HLF funded – Meres and Mosses Mediamakers – Creative Digital Interpretation Commission. With support of natural heritage specialists, working with children and young people from North Shropshire during school hours, to generate a range of creative digital content (short films, animation, photography, audio, creative writing, etc) BFI funded Into Film - See it Make It. Filmmaking with CYP and support staff in after school settings.ACE funded – Eyewitness - part of Shropshire Council’s WW1 Commemorations programme. A digital storymaking / transmedia creative arts project working with young people (in and out of school settings) and creative practitioners across Shropshire and a national champion of digital story making with mobile devices who specialises in Social Technology and connected platforms. Activity led by the MediaActive team, with external input as required with creative practitioners and lecturers from Uni of Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Uni.

Scrappies and Lesley McKnight – Freelance Community Arts PractitionerGeneral descriptionScrappies is a children's scrapstore recycling & resource centre based in Church Stretton, who deliver workshops, training sessions, birthday parties and run craft clubs, both in Church Stretton and across the county. They work with freelance community arts practitioner delivering visual arts workshops and work with South

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Shropshire Youth Forum, Scrappies, Craven Arms Art Trail (CACIC), Craven Arms Area Youth Group amongst others.

Current CYP offerMobile workshops, organised events, competitions, organised programmes of activity/ learning and training.

Shropshire Council Arts ServiceGeneral descriptionUndertake the role of ‘leader in the community’, providing leadership on arts development issues, training, project management / support. This includes providing strategic advice, guidance and support to service areas such as the Community Enablement Teams, arts organisations and venues, festivals, community art groups.

Advocate for the arts in Shropshire on behalf of the whole community, holding a broad overview of county provision and local arts issues. Ensure that access to the arts is widened through continued audience development. Particularly developing opportunities for people who traditionally have barriers to arts engagement and primarily from our priority groups, such as children and young people, older people, and people with mental and physical disabilities.

The service manages revenue client selection, contracts and performance – arts organisations / venues and festivals. Establish partnerships to provide arts and cultural services to local people, that are outcome focused and link to policy objectives.

The service also delivers some arts activity; where there are gaps in provision that other providers or methods of working cannot fill, a need has been highlighted by the community, the activity meets corporate priorities and objectives, funding is available and/or can be sourced and the activity is sustainable.

Current CYP offerDirect Project Delivery – not mentioned by partners above:

School Grants – 27 school delivering activities include e.g. Diwali Arts Project, after school art club, Creativity and Digital Media, Music from Toys, using the potter’s wheel etc. The majority of funded projects included elements of CPD for staff.

AiR – Artists in Residence. School residency placements for emerging artists and/or those wanting more experience working in schools. Artists representing all art form specialisms involved in the scheme to support artists who are at an early stage of their career and wish to develop their practice and work collaboratively with schools to learn about ways of developing creative curriculums.

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Boys Dancing A partnership project between Shropshire Council and the West Midlands Boys Dance Alliance, the project develops and celebrates dance for boys and young men.Participants engage with dance workshops delivered by a professional male dance artist, live performance, film and photography. Groups involved include; schools (Primary & Secondary), Youth Groups, stoke heath prison.

WW1 Commissions – specifically children and young people focused- Shrewsbury Sixth Form and Carl Jaycock, “Youth of Europe Remembering” –

young people and multi-media contemporary art project. - QUBE – Community Arts Project – engaging children and young people, as

well as other members of the local community- Bookfest Remembers – literature project – to engage children and young

people in a real life story of from the First World War to foster an understanding of this period of history by way of performance, literature, poetry, music and the visual arts.

- Rural arts and heritage festival – Acton Scott Working Farm. Children’s workshops delivered by Whack it Smack it and Scrappies.

- “No Man’s Land” – Boys Dancing, delivered by Shropshire Council.

Shropshire Council Libraries ServiceGeneral descriptionShropshire Council’s Libraries service operates across the county – currently 22 and 4 mobiles. Many of the libraries are within small rural communities and act as important community hubs. 7 CYP librarians around the county offer specialist knowledge and support to library staff and library users. They currently work with 65 schools across Shropshire.

Current CYP offer Arts and Craft Activities Writing Workshops Bookstart Rhyme and Story Times Teenage Reading Group Reading Activists (Young volunteers for SRC) Work Experience and D of E volunteers Book themed activities eg. Elmer Book themed competitions eg. Beast Quest School visits to libraries Bookquest – (going into schools) Summer Reading Challenge and related activities and events Literary Festivals Exhibition space

Shropshire Music Service

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General descriptionShropshire Music Service provides instrumental, vocal and curriculum support for schools throughout Shropshire and to give young people performing opportunities in schools and in the communities. They currently work with 104 schools across the county delivering music activity.

Current CYP offerGroups, Choirs & Bands – Providing young people with the opportunity to play and sing as part of a group at every level in the ‘County School of Music’ as well as a huge range of in-school ensembles. Workshops and Festivals – High quality musical experiences delivered to young people of all ages, tailored to meet the needs of the school. Curriculum Support - Providing specialist Music teaching, ensuring that young people receive high quality musical education. Support can be alongside the school music co-ordinator. Whole-Class Instrumental Tuition on a range of instruments Instrumental and Voice lessons for smaller groups including woodwind, brass, strings, percussion, guitar and keyboard. Live Music in Schools - providing the opportunity for young people to access professional live music in schools. Special Projects held throughout the year, including competitions, large scale workshops and singing festivals3.3 Other CYP cultural activity delivery in Shropshire

Outside of the current consortium members, the researcher also invited Shropshire Council’s Museums and Archives to detail the delivery of their current CYP activity;

Shropshire Council Museum ServiceGeneral descriptionThe learning team at Shropshire Museums service currently delivers a schools’ workshop programme for Reception/KS1 to KS4 from Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery (SM&AG), Acton Scott Historic Working Farm (ASHWF), Ludlow Museum Resource Centre and Shropshire Archives.

Current CYP offerThey run a weekly parent and baby group for 0-2 years from Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery and Early Years workshops for pre-school visitors from ASHWF and SM&AG. In addition they run:- workshops to support the special exhibitions programme at SM&AG that have included FE programmes based around art exhibitions for foundation art students. - a range of informal family activities during school holidays for families visiting SM&AG and ASHWF. These have included partnership working with - drop-in craft sessions run by volunteer members of staff. Spooky Supper Halloween events and events linked to national campaigns like Big Draw and Kids in Museums Takeover Day. - Museums in Schools outreach service to schools. An educator leads a session in school with a themed artefact box.

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- Museum in a Box – run in partnership with the Schools’ Library Service. A themed artefact box delivered to schools for self-directed learning.

Shropshire Council Archives ServiceGeneral descriptionShropshire Council’s Archive service in the county service delivered from a dedicated space in Shrewsbury. They hold parish and non-conformist registers, poor law and workhouse records, maps, photographs, records of Shropshire Council, the ancient boroughs and district authorities, records of the Quarter Sessions and other local courts, electoral registers and poll books, pedigrees, newspapers, school records, census returns, cemetery records, estate and manorial documents.

Current CYP offerSchool visitsResources for schools including on line www.archivezone.org.uk Work Experience placements, Facilities for study, Apprenticeships

In addition, the researcher worked closely with the Arts Development Officer for Shropshire Council to identity another 31 additional cultural organisations that deliver within the county, many of whom receive revenue funding from Shropshire Council, to contribute details of their CYP activity along with other key youth activity providers, many of these operate in a voluntary capacity. A list of these additional organisations is presented in Appendix 3. Only a few of these organisations contributed to the research, the findings from the organisations that contributed are presented below. The Arts Development Officer for the county provided additional data from other organisations that receive revenue funding from the local authority. This has been added to the information presented in 3.11

Ludlow Assembly RoomsGeneral descriptionLudlow Assembly Rooms is an independent venue located in Ludlow offering live, streamed and cinema cultural events for people of all ages.

Current CYP offer Little Monsters Film Club - BFI Film Hub NW funded season of children’s films and accompanying workshops running from Oct 2014 – Feb 2015, delivered in partnership with Rockspring Community Centre. These are low-cost, family focused events aimed at children aged 5-8.

Cinema and streamed events - show family-friendly films and streamed events during school holidays.

Live Shows - children and families live show audience has grown consistently over

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the last 12 months. Hold a range of shows aimed at a variety of ages. Good relationship with Ludlow College and each year, they put on a show that runs for several days. Included in the College shows is an opportunity for hands-on technical experience/learning.

WorkshopsSaturday Morning Arts – SMART – club for children. This has been running for years. Half term and holidays workshops for children are a regular feature of our programming - try to pair live shows with accompanying workshops.

Shrewsbury Folk FestivalGeneral descriptionShrewsbury Folk Festival is an independent 4-day folk arts festival taking place in Shrewsbury during the bank holiday weekend in August.

Current CYP offer4 days of arts programming for children upto age 12 years

lantern making: prepare for the procession craft drop in workshops drama and movement workshops dance workshops big band – teaching by ear leading to performance circus skills drop-in and performance story telling singing together lantern procession with professional musicians and dancers

3 days arts programming for young people aged 12years plus all star big band workshops, rehearsals & performances choir/harmony singing workshops, rehearsals & performances rapper dance workshops samba drumming workshops henna tattooing sessions

All workshops and sessions delivered by professional artists, arts assistants and volunteers

Shrewsbury Folk Festival have identified an aim to develop their work further to deliver a focused approach to their work outside of the current festival period, delivering folk arts to CYP in Shropshire. They are currently seeking funding to deliver this aim.

Shropshire Youth Association (SYA)Shropshire Youth Association is a registered charity working throughout Shropshire with young people, volunteers, and staff who are involved in over 100 affiliated

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community youth groups. The aim of SYA is “To help young people especially, though not exclusively through leisure-time activities, so to develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacities that they may grow to full maturity as individuals and members of society."

SYA offers infrastructure support to voluntary youth clubs and put together activity opportunities for youth clubs and offer equipment for Youth Clubs to enhance their own. They have recently developed activities like encaustic art, T-shirt printing, graffiti workshops, upcycling etc. to deliver through youth clubs. As indicated earlier in this report, Shropshire Council have recently announced that a partnership of Shropshire Youth Association (SYA) and Energize Shropshire Telford & Wrekin (STW) has been chosen as its preferred partner to offer support and training to voluntary sector organisations delivering youth activities in Shropshire from 1 February 2015.

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)The Shropshire Hills AONB covers a quarter of the county of Shropshire. The main purpose of AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, while also taking account of economic and social needs, promoting sustainable development and meeting the demand for recreation. The Shropshire Hills AONB partnerships co-ordinates this work, and is hosted by Shropshire Council and funded in addition by Defra, Telford & Wrekin Council and project funders.

Within the AONB Management Plan8 there is a delivery priority to “Raise awareness and participation within the AONB, especially among young people”.

In the past AONB have worked on creative projects with Shropshire based storytellers, filmmakers, The Hive and Pentabus. They are very keen to extend their creative partnerships to deliver opportunities for young people, particularly in the area of connecting digital and landscape.

In the past the AONB have administered the EU funding stream LEADER for rural development, within the county and are likely to administer the 2015-20 LEADER funding. Within the LEADER funding there is a priority to ‘Enhance the natural, cultural and heritage attractions of the area’

Independent practitioners delivering in the countyTwo independent practitioners responded to the research. They both operate on an independent basis working in partnership with other organisations, but also delivering their own independent work.

Tom Middleton – specialises in film production, education, event production and design services. He works regularly with The Hive, Shropshire Hills AONB, South Shropshire Youth Forum and Appletree Theatre (Ludlow).

Rachel Liggitt – specialises in inclusive dance working extensively with short-breaks

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in Telford & Wrekin. Rachel has a large network across the West Mids dance sector.

8 http://www.shropshirehillsaonb.co.uk/looking-after/management-plan/3.4 Arts Award, Arts Award Supporters, Artsmark and Hub School

Arts AwardThere are currently 86 Arts Awards centres within the county of Shropshire (this includes Arts Awards centres within the Telford & Wrekin administrative area).

An analysis of the Arts Award data from the last 12 months indicates that 121 awards have been moderated as follows:The Hive - 5 Bronze awardsSundorne School – 11 Silver awardsLudlow Education Centre (TMBSS) – 5 Bronze awardsBridgnorth Endowed school – 46 Bronze awards (awarded over 2 periods)MediaActive – 1 Bronze, 4 SilverBridgnorth Education centre – 2 Silver awardsSmallbrook School – 3 Bronze awardsBelvedere School – 46 Bronze awards

Only three of the consortium members, The Hive, MediaActive and Scrappies / Lesley McKnight (under the name The Art Factor) are currently listed as being an Arts Award centre and Shropshire Libraries Service have recently registered. Only The Hive and MediaActive have been active in passing awards through for moderation in the last year. There was little indication within the consortium or within the additional organisations who took part in the research that they are currently offering Arts Award, yet several organisations indicated that they would like to increase this offer in the future.

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14 schools undertook Arts Award training in 2014, 10 undertook Discover and Explore and 4 undertook Bronze and Silver (details of these can be found in Appendix 4)

Arts Award SupportersThere are currently 9 Arts Award Supporters within the county of Shropshire. 6 of these are within the Telford and Wrekin administrative area and 3 are within Shropshire administrative area. The 3 who are within Shropshire, Meadow Arts, Pentabus and The Hive are all consortium members. These three organisations did not have any examples of how their work has been used to support Arts Award, but all three have indicated that they would like to increase the profile of this offer.

ArtsmarkThere are currently 15 schools within the Shropshire local authority area that have Artsmark status. Two of these schools, St. Mary’s Primary School Bucknell and Ellesmere College have gold status. (details of these can be found in Appendix 4)

Hub SchoolThere is currently one hub school in Shropshire – Ellesmere College, who are a new Artsmark Gold school. The activity level has been low to date, but there are now two newly identified members of staff who will lead on this activity and have indicated that they would like to train staff as Arts Award Gold advisers. The school are also interested in dance opportunities as historically sport has had a high profile at the school and the school would like to boost the profile of arts through dance opportunities. The school are currently making connections with Birmingham Royal ballet. The school are also interested in potential links around film and media work, they have facilities and are keen to work with other local schools.

3.5 Further Schools analysis

The researcher undertook further analysis of the schools engaging in cultural activity in the county. This research looked at schools who were previously engaged with the Creative Partnership programme, schools who have engaged with local authority activity and have been given funding for cultural activity, schools who have relationships with Shropshire Music service and the Library service, school that other consortium members indicate that they have a relationship with as well as Arts Award and Arts Mark information. This information is presented in Appendix 4.

This research found that:

15 schools (9%) have no cultural activity engagement with external providers. These schools collectively have 1,677 pupils

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57 schools (35%) have low levels of engagement, only undertaking one form of engagement with an external provider

15 schools (9%) have higher levels of engagement i.e. they have engaged with or undertaken more than two aspects of cultural activity, local authority funded activity and/or are an Arts Mark School and / or have a relationship with a consortium member

In addition, the Libraries Service has a relationship with 65 schools – 40% of all schools, the Music Service has a relationship with 101 schools – 61% of all schools and the Arts Service with 54 schools – 33% of all schools (details of these can be found in Appendix 4)

Further research undertaken by Arts Connect indicates the number of cultural subject A-level examinations undertaken in the county. There is no data available for Film studies, Media studies or Photography, although they are recognised as cultural subjects.

Number of A level examination entries by state-funded students by Cultural Subject

Year: 2013/14 (provisional)Number of entries Art and Design Drama Music All subjectsEngland 40,769 11,804 7,187 742,347State-funded sector 35,412 10,090 5,854 634,370Shropshire 214 26 44 3,195

Number of A level A* and A grades achieved by state-funded students by Cultural subjectYear: 2013/14 (provisional)Number of A*-A grade passes Art and Design Drama Music All subjectsEngland 11,188 1,804 1,276 196,298State-funded sector 8,509 1,211 776 143,150Shropshire 38 3 3 581

Number of A level A* to E grades achieved by state-funded students by Cultural subjectYear: 2013/14 (provisional)Number of A*-E grade passes Art and Design Drama Music All subjectsEngland 40,460 11,747 7,106 731,514All state-funded sector 35,124 10,034 5,780 624,396Shropshire 211 26 43 3,101

3.6 Apprenticeship’s, Work Experience and Young People’s training opportunities

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The consortium and the additional organisations were asked if they offer apprenticeships, work experience and young people’s training opportunities. 187 opportunities have been available in the county within the last 12 months as indicated in the chart presented in the conclusions part of this section. 40% of these opportunities were delivered through the organisation MediaActive linked to their film and media arts skills based training, young programmer initiatives and Production Team work experience model. 34% were delivered through the Libraries Service and are mostly young volunteers gathering work experience through a Libraries programme. The other opportunities have mostly been through work experience.

Shropshire Archives service has also worked with apprentices, recruited through working with County Training.

Transport issues within a rural area were cited as being the biggest barrier to organisations that are located in more rural areas, outside of the train and bus network as to why they do not engage with interns and apprentices. Many organisations also cited fiscal barriers as to how they pay interns and apprentices.

There are 2 Arts Council Creative Employment opportunities currently with Wem Town Hall and 1 with Arts Alive.

The researcher spoke to Creative Alliance, the Birmingham based organisation that works with organisations and young people across the West Midlands delivering creative apprenticeship programmes. The organisation has a good working relationship with MediaActive and Wem Town Hall and in addition have worked with the Shropshire Star to deliver apprenticeships. The organisation recognises the rural transport barrier to access opportunities and suggests considering the following solutions:

offer bus passes as part of deal target older learners with own transport 21+ largely increase apprentice salary maximise wage subsidy opportunities available to employers

3.7 Networks within Shropshire’s current CYP offer

i. Relationships with Schools, young people’s group, specialist and families’ groupsThe consortium members and additional organisations were asked to give details of their CYP relationships in Shropshire that they regularly work with. This information is sensitive as to organisational relationships; therefore it is being presented as an unattributed list. The schools that organisations have relationships with are presented in Appendix 4. The list below represents key relationships outside of schools that the consortium members have:

Shropshire Council’s Inclusion Services and with Young Offenders

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Boys Dance AllianceMiddle Marches Lions (Youth Projects)South Shropshire Youth ForumLooked after children’s teams in ShropshireYoung Carers in Shropshire and T&W (managed by the British Red Cross in Shropshire and T&W Council in Telford)PRU partnersRockspring Community CentreEnergise – Sports partnershipShropshire Family LearningShropshire Youth ParliamentHomework ClubsHome Education groupsShropshire Music Trust

ii. Other partners whom the consortium and additional organisations work with on a county, regional and national basis to deliver CYP activity

Craven Arms Art Café Artists’Craven Arts CICShropshire Hills Discovery CentreWest Midlands Community Arts ForumUniversity of WolverhamptonShropshire Council Inclusion Service, Community EnablementBFI Film Audience Network / FilmHubNWC – steering group memberFACTInto FilmShropshire ScreenBFI Film Academy Network – UK wideShropshire Wildlife TrustShropshire Housing GroupInto WorkCreative AllianceHealth ProfessionalsChildren’s TrustChildren Centres

Early Years TeamBookstartLudlow Fringe FestivalOswestry Lit FestShrewsbury Book FestivalMarket Drayton Arts FestivalPoetry On LoanWest Midlands Readers NetworkDanceXchange, BirminghamDanceSyndrome – ManchesterPowis DanceFoundation for community danceInclusive dance networkWest Midlands – Arts & HealthPre-school Learning AllianceSchools’ Advisers at Shropshire CouncilShropshire Hills AONBOther arts organisations in the regionNational TrustWrekin Housing Trust

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3.8 Funding of Shropshire’s current CYP offer

The consortium members and additional organisations were asked who funds their current CYP offer.

Most of the NPOs reported that their current CYP activity is funded through Arts Council NPO funding, with some of their work being delivered with partners through the Arts Council Grants for the Arts or Strategic funding strands.

In addition, other organisations reported that their current CYP viewing / attendance offer is funded through ticket sales, whilst the participation elements are funded through a variety of sources:

Workshop commissionersShropshire CouncilArts Council – Grants for the ArtsBFI Film Audience Network /FilmHubNWCDfE / BFIInto FilmHLFShropshire Wildlife TrustWalker TrustMillichope FoundationYouth Music funding Armed Forces Covenant Fund (2015-16)Government Office funded programme of activity for young carers in Shropshire in partnership with the British Red CrossSchool’s budgets & staff time

Some organisations report that in the past they have accessed funding through:Comic Relief, Ernest Cook Trust, Paul Hamlyn Fund, Awards for All, Job Centre Plus, SITA, ALSF.

The consortium members were asked how much income they received to deliver their CYP activity in the last financial year. This information was presented confidentially to the researcher within the framework of her ethical statement and has been compiled to produce an overall figure for the county.

Earned income through ticket sales and paid for workshop attendance over the last financial year (2014/15) amounted to £370,813 a substantial amount of this is through ticket sales at the Theatre Severn venue.

Grants from Arts Council England, other public funders such as BFI, other lottery sources and trusts and foundations amounted to £273,078. In addition, Shropshire Music Service receives a grant of £300,000 per annum from Arts Council to deliver music provision.

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These combined figures for the financial year 2014/15 amounted to £943,891.

These combined figures relates to activity delivered by Shropshire Music Service, Shropshire Libraries Service, Shropshire Arts Service, Shropshire Museums Service, Pentabus, Arts Alive, Theatre Severn, Wem Town Hall, Media Active, Meadow Arts, Scrappies / Lesley McKnight and The Hive.

3.9 Specialisms within Shropshire’s current CYP offer

The consortium and the additional organisations were asked to consider their specialism and what they deliver well as part of their CYP offer. The responses were:

- Networking and creating opportunities- Involve young people as young promoters – asking them for their feedback on

what they have seen- Community Arts leadership- Media Arts participation and production- Knowledge of contemporary practice – vis arts, media arts, music, film and

animation and of exhibition / distribution / programming, promoting, curating.

- Engagement – young people, schools, community, in relation to participation and exhibition

- Audience development – young people, in relation to specialised content, giving them good awareness of current practice (not just our own)

- Delivering work experience activity for young people via involvement as part of a Production Team on “live” commissions and contracts (over the years we have consistently attracted investment to support this area of work. Our work with young people has led to nominations by national bodies for National Lottery Awards in 2013 and 2014.)

- Over the years a number of films made through our programme have been nominated and won national and regional awards and have been showcased at nation and international festivals.

- We deliver excellent collections based learning programmes and have received a Sandford Education Award.

- We are experienced in running Rhyme and Story times with in libraries for preschoolers, running arts and craft sessions within libraries, partnership working, specialist Children’s librarians

- Contemporary visual arts- Specialist CYP music knowledge- Exciting and inspiring participatory family activities- Activities that develop creative thinking, giving CYP the opportunity to

develop creative ideas- Excellent links with some high-level artists who lead activities and talks- Supporting the creative industries by working with art students, emerging

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artists and providing young artists with the opportunity to get involved- We are the only producing company in the UK making contemporary new

plays about contemporary rural themes and issues - this is our USP- Our work is thoughtful and bespoke and authentic – as evidenced through our

young writers programme- We can act as a broker into the wider theatre, and in particular, playwriting- Our Artistic Director is a trained and well respected theatre director- We can offer unique experiences from our Shropshire base - i.e. working with

playwrights, seeing the creation of work - We feel the young writers model is a best practice case study, which we hope

to grow and develop- Networks & partnership working- Many years of experience and excellent track record in the delivery of arts and

cultural opportunities for children and young people - Specialism in the delivery of music programmes with looked after children - We have a reputation for delivering high quality CPD and we take pride in our

artists being highly skilled and committed to ongoing professional development (as well as the staff team)

- A professional staff team with individual specialisms gained over a long period of time having built up trusts and developed long-term relationships with a variety of organisations in the region

- We are a multi-use venue, based at the heart of the town centre, serving a large rural catchment. The venue offers broad arts programme, alongside a range of other uses (which makes for potential cross over of audiences that might not typically be arts consumers) and is entirely intergenerational. The venue has a large volunteer force that is also advocates for the programme – although we would like to recruit more young volunteers.

- Good relationship with schools and families and with local organisations, who bring programme and activity to the venue.

- We are considered to be a priority resource by both the local authority and Town Council and won a Civic Trust Award for Community Recognition.

- We are well networked, and develop the arts offer in collaboration with other providers, often through partnership.

- A number of trustees also have art form expertise and as a board they are very supportive of the arts and very trusting of the Manager’s programming. They are only risk averse in financial terms, obviously happier when challenging programme has some financial underpinning, but understanding that mixed programming is generally a healthy approach to developing audiences.

- Beyond staff, partnerships and volunteers, our strengths lie with our venue – we have flexible spaces, with high quality digital/3D cinema, great acoustics and sprung dance floor in the main hall. Our gallery space is limited, but is a separate space with great visibility (glass box) from the high street and foyer, so is more invitational than it might be.

- Visual & Performing Arts and Cinema - Providing meaningful (and long term) work experience and apprenticeships,

working with schools and the Into Work scheme.

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3.10 Case Studies of the impact of Shropshire’s current CYP work

The organisations were asked to provide examples of where their work with CYP has made a difference to a young person’s life. Most of the organisations were able to give examples and these are presented in Appendix 5. However, these examples are ad hoc and it is a key recommendation that the impact of the delivery of CYP activity is considered in greater detail, particularly around the social impact that is being delivered. This articulation would enable a broader funding base and enable greater advocacy for the impact of CYP work within the county.

3.11 The voice of CYP in designing opportunities and programmes The organisations were asked if they include children and young people in the design of the activity that they deliver. Some organisations indicated that they do undertake this, such as MediaActive where it is integral to their Adventures in Alternative Cinema and Arts Alive where they encourage an informal young people’s recommendation approach to aid their programming, however there was a mixed response as to how this was achieved from other members. This is an area for consideration for further consideration in the future. 3.12 Conclusions as to current CYP activity taking place within Shropshire

Numbers of CYP being reached:The researcher analysed the information presented by the consortium members, to consider the numbers of CYP that are being reached in terms of attending /viewing cultural activity, actively participating and undertaking work experience/apprenticeships and internships. In addition, the researcher considered data from other CYP activity providers obtained from Shropshire Council’s Arts Development Officer, however not all of the organisations delivering CYP activity in the county have submitted figures to the officer. This is therefore an incomplete data set.

Number of CYP attending / viewing cultural activity

Number of CYP actively participating in formal activity (activity taking place within schools)

Number of CYP actively participating in informal activity (activity taking place outside of schools)

Number of work experience / apprenticeships / internships

Consortium membersArts Alive 2060 - 183 1Meadow Arts 1500 36 - -Pentabus 85 - 14 2Wem Town Hall 2498 450 1039 4The Hive - - 3000 12MediaActive 714 377 105 75Theatre Severn 30,604 - - -Scrappies/Lesley McKnight - 250 2127 2Shropshire Library Service - 7,000 13,549 63

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Shropshire Arts Service - 84 - -Shropshire Music Service 7,460 3,000 8,764Total 44,921 11,197 28,781 159

Non consortium membersArchives service - 205 8

Museums service - 7120 20

Ludlow Assembly Rooms # 3600 *1745

Shropshire Youth Association - *4000

Shrewsbury Folk Festival # 3000 300

Kinokulture Cinema # 803 *30DASH # 20 *27Oswestry Community Action / Qube 600 *46Appletree Organisation # 2000 *225

SpArC # 860 *316Four and Twenty Arts CIC # 76 *178Shrewsbury Heritage # 1030 *10

The Edge Arts Centre # 1239 *346

Mythstories # 481 *660Project Group # 1000 *99Visual Arts Network # 180 *15English Haydn Festival # 30Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival 480 *93Church Stretton Arts Festival 124 *67Wenlock Poetry Festival # 1100 *330Ludlow Fringe Festival # 1044 *216Market Drayton Community Arts Festival # 1000 *750Blackberry Fair 1000 *100Festival at the Edge # 900 *60Minsterley & District Eisteddfod# 130 *180Total 20,697 7325 9793 28Overall Total of cultural opportunities 65,600 18,522 38,574 187

# information supplied by Arts Development Officer* these figures have not been supplied in such a way as to be able to differentiate between formal and informal participation

It is not clear that all of the figures that have been reported are completely accurate or are distinctly Shropshire focused activity. As a county Shropshire is surrounded by neighbouring counties, and in particular the local authority borders between Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin authorities are blurred. Within rural areas, national audience research indicates that people do travel considerable distances to access cultural opportunities.

We cannot also distinguish within the figures if there is an overlap of CYP accessing activity from more that one provider, it is an assumption that it is highly probable that there is an overlap, especially within highly populated areas such as Shrewsbury.

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Geographical reach:The researcher also considered the geographical reach of the current activity being delivered from the information supplied by the consortium members and additional organisations. This has been mapped onto a map of the county as follows.

Again there are a number of considerations when viewing this information as before, that the information supplied by the organisations is accurate, that CYP maybe accessing activity over the border in neighbouring counties and are therefore engaged in activity elsewhere. Those organisations that are venue based in certain areas also attract participation and audiences from outside of their particular bases. Shropshire Libraries and Shropshire Music Hub also deliver activity across the county.

Cold spot:This report highlights that Cleobury Mortimer is a cold spot within the county, where there is higher level of 0-19 years old (LJC data gives this figure at 1,875 but there is no indication of current activity being delivered in that area).

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Art Form offer:There is a mixed art-form offer that is being delivered to CYP in the county by the consortium members and additional members, both as viewing/attendance opportunities as well as participatory opportunities, with all art forms being offered.There are fewer opportunities to view / attend dance and visual arts, and limited opportunity to view / attend literature

Combined Arts Dance

Visual Arts Music

Film / digital art Literature Theatre

Live Screening

Consortium membersArts Alive x X x X XMeadow Arts xPentabus XWem Town Hall X x x X X xThe Hive x x XMediaActive x XTheatre SevernScrappies/ Lesley McKnight xShropshire Library Service XShropshire Music Service xShropshire Council Arts X X

3.13 Key recommendations from analysis of current activityKey recommendations can be drawn from an analysis of the current activity.

Increase participatory opportunities in the county across all artforms Increase participatory and attendance opportunities for CYP within dance,

visual arts and literature Digital media has been identified in Arts Council England’s recent Rural

evidence and data review report 9, Shropshire has some digital media delivery, but this needs to be considered further in terms of art form development

9 http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/browse-advice-and-guidance/rural-evidence-and-data-review

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Strengthen relationships with schools and the education sector in the county and seek a representative to join the consortium

The Arts Award offer within the county needs to be increased Increase opportunities for young people to access apprenticeships, work

experience and skills based training Increase activity in the identified cold spot Consider how the voice of CYP is heard in the development and design of

activity Consider the impact of CYP in greater detail, particularly the social impact of

what is being delivered, the difference that the work is having on the lives of CYP in the county

Additional consortium members:

- Consider input from Shropshire Youth Association as Shropshire Council’s preferred partner to offer support and training to voluntary sector organisations delivering youth activities

- Consider input from Shropshire Council’s Museum and Archives services - Consider AONB as a key delivery partner, connecting cultural activity to the

landscape

4. Future Activity and Development

4.1 Priority of CYP work currently and in the futureThe consortium members were asked to consider what priority level they would give to their CYP currently and how this may change in the future. They were asked to rank the priority from 1-5, with 1 being the top and what success looks like for them.

MediaActive, The Hive and Scrappies / Lesley McKnight both state that CYP work is the most important priority within their delivery and will continue to be so.

MediaActive see success as being an increase in numbers participation numbers and reach of programme, further development of partnerships, recognition at national level and knowledge sharing, as well as securing a more stable basis for the organisation’s delivery model.

The Hive view success as delivering more activity and working with new partners to deliver CYP activity, and offering opportunities for CPD.

Shropshire Council’s Libraries service rate CYP activity as their top priority, they see success as being able to have delivered Arts Award Discover in a Day, to increase the number of “finishers” in the Summer Reading Challenge (those children who read 6 books over the summer) to sustain or increase the numbers

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attending Rhyme and Story time sessions, especially within smaller libraries and to increase the number of Secondary aged CYP that they engage with outside the school environment.

Shropshire Music Service also rate CYP activity as a top priority and see success as being the continuation of their provision across seven key areas of delivery across schools and other music providers however, they are aware that they need to maintain their Arts Council grant to be able to deliver.

Scrappies are currently considering their business model and business plan, however CYP work remains a priority.

Wem Town Hall, see this work currently at a level 2 priority where it will remain. They see success as securing funding for their workshop activity and for their specialised film programme. They would also like to recruit two further interns and would hope to continue to offer paid internships for the long term, subject to available resources.

Meadow Arts and Arts Alive both see their CYP work as a medium priority currently (scoring it as a 3), but would like to refocus and move it to a 2 in the future.

Meadow Arts sees success as being able to offer high quality engagement activity, the launch of a sustainable education and engagement programme, measuring the and increasing the number of CYP that attend their activity in a robust way, delivering a symposium targeting arts students and offering 10 Arts Awards opportunities each year through their programme.

Arts Alive see success being determined as improving the profile of the consortium’s work across the county, increasing numbers of CYP accessing their activity and using it for Arts Award and working with new partners to deliver CYP activity.

Pentabus scored their CYP work as a 3 and remaining there due to capacity or the organisation. Success will be determined by the ongoing development of their young writers programme, to reach more young people and raise the profile of the programme. Their long-term vision is to roll this out on a national level. They would also like to engage three work experience students.

In addition, The Museums service rate it as a 2 and Archives as a 3 and Theatre Severn currently rate the priority as a 4, but would like to move it to a 3.

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4.2 Future activity plans

The consortium members were asked to give details of their future activity and development plans, outside of the continuation of their current work previously outlined. The organisations gave the following information:

Arts Alive are currently working on a national partnership to deliver early years performances into EY settings and developing their music partnerships.

Scrappies / Lesley McKnight would like to deliver two community art projects as part of the Shropshire Hills Art Week in June 2015.

Meadow Arts are working with Ironbridge Gorge Museum to deliver a contemporary Art programme and hope to deliver Arts Award activity within this. They are also hoping to develop a programme for CYP around the theme of the Young Curator. Although they are working in Ironbridge, this is very close to the border with Shropshire and will provide opportunities for CYP from Shropshire.

Pentabus are creating new productions more broadly for families and aim to grow and expand their young writers programme nationally. They are touring their new work to National Trust venues, including within Shropshire. They are excited about both aspects and how these programmes will help them to meet their audience development aims.

The Hive are currently working on four priority areas: Youth Music – Musical Inclusion Programme – 2015-2016 Youth Music – Elevated Risk Programme – 2015-2016 Armed Forces Covenant – 2015 Young Carers Programme

MediaActive are continuing their programmes as outlined, as well as developing an ExCITE programme, which is now underway funded by partnership investment from Arts Connect – developing a new partnership approach to providing creative industry based work related learning opportunities for young people. They are excited about involvement of interns and recent graduates to inform their portfolio development and creative ambitions, they anticipate ACE R&D and EU investment into this strand, considering pan European activity.

Wem Town Hall are anticipating supporting their CYP engagement activity with culturally diverse arts through workshops, events, exhibitions, etc. Linking to partner schools who will sign up as Cultural Ambassadors. They hope to secure support from FilmHubNWC for Children and Families strand of specialised film programme. They will continue to work in partnership with MediaActive, particularly around work including a young programmer approach and develop further their opportunities for interns and graduates, who will help to inform their development and capacity to work more closely with young people in developing programme and the venue.

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Theatre Severn plan to introduce a ticketing scheme offering last-minute discounted tickets to CYP under a set age limit, and continuing their commitment to providing a programme which features content of an engaging and educational nature to CYP.

In addition, Shropshire Council’s Museum service are considering an enhanced range of digital learning opportunities to offer CYP greater access to the sites and collections pre and post visit and during and visit to the museums. Improving and focusing their schools’ workshop offer to target curriculum needs and provide greater access to collections, involving young people in collections based learning. They are also seeking to extend their Early Years offer and to establish a greater range of informal learning opportunities across the sites.

The Libraries service are delivering:Arts Award – Discover in a Day – May 2015Summer Reading Challenge and events associatedNational Bookstart Week – June 2015Arts Connect joint West Midlands Bid “Our Mutual Passion” - end of 2015

Shropshire Music Service are looking to continue their music provision within schools, working across 7 areas.

Ensure that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (other than voice) through whole-class ensemble teaching programmes for ideally a year (but for a minimum of a term) of weekly tuition on the same instrument

Provide opportunities to play in ensembles and to perform from an early stage

Ensure that clear progression routes are available and affordable to all young people

Develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil sings regularly and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in the area

Offer CPD to school staff, particularly in supporting schools to deliver music in the curriculum

Provide an instrument loan service, with discounts or free provision for those on low incomes

Provide access to large scale and / or high quality music experiences for pupils, working with professional musicians and / or venues. This may include undertaking work to publicise the opportunities available to schools, parents/carers and students

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4.3 Future funding of CYP activityThe consortium members are expecting a continuation of their funding for CYP activity as it is currently being funded. However, there is great concern around the future of funding from Shropshire Council for organisations and in particular for the museum, archives and libraries services. These services are hoping that they can access Arts Council funding to support their activity.

All of the organisations recognise that funding is a precarious area and several articulated that they are aiming to diversify their funding bases.

Some of the organisations are hoping that their work will become self funded through the users (contractors) of their CYP work.

Some organisations have articulated that they are looking to increase investment through the following:

strategic approach to trust applications review of co-producing partnerships individual donors local commissioning creative commissions partnership development CSR EU Crowd Funding

4.4 What the organisations need to further developThe organisations were asked to consider what they are lacking in order to deliver their CYP activity plans. They were asked to consider a number of areas including core staff expertise, core staff capacity, training, business model, availability of freelance staff, relationships, knowledge of opportunities and connections, isolation, need for capital investment, premises.

The top areas of priority for all of the organisations were identified as staffing resources, capacity and funding for the activity to take place.

In addition organisations recognised a need for: Training, particularly around areas of CYP best practice Knowledge of opportunities for working with young people Connections and networks Marketing their offer Rural isolation affects their offer – particularly Arts Award and

internships/work placements Advocacy for the work that they deliver – an understand particularly amongst

the decision makers within Shropshire Council An investment in the buildings for activity to take place in and some

equipment used in activity delivery

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4.5 Sustainability of organisations The consortium members were asked to comment upon their sustainability over the next few years, considering the main threats and opportunities available to them.

Threats:As already indicated, the organisations feel that their greatest threat is to the reduction and cessation of funding of their CYP activity, particularly to their local authority funding, and to the reduction in Arts Council budgets. They also see this as a threat to the partners that they work with. It is felt that there is a lack of understanding by funders to the barriers that there are within rural areas – mostly transport barriers and a lack of diverse population.

Within the county of Shropshire it is felt that there is often a lack of visibility of the work that is delivered and a lack of understanding of the value of their work, particularly within the decision making powers within the county, who are making funding decisions and in turn influencing the priorities of the Local Enterprise Partner.

Opportunities:Many opportunities were recognised by the consortium members. These have been identified as:Cultural commissioning opportunities Continuing to build and deepening a network of partnersWorking more collaborativelyApplying for funding for collaborative workArticulating the value of the work that we undertakeDiversifying income streams to support activity

4.6 Working together and building strengthThe consortium members were asked to consider who else was needed to be added to the consortium mix, what they would like the consortium to achieve and what other help they needed.

The areas that it was felt that were not represented within the consortium currently was a formal education voice and a connection with youth activity (formerly youth services).

Capacity and time to enable staff to engage in the consortium when an organisation’s remit of delivery extends beyond Shropshire, was raised as a potential issue by a few of the organisations. It was felt that a consortium approach was very important to advocate for the CYP work that is being delivered in Shropshire, to raise awareness of this work, particularly amongst decision makers in the county, to find partners to collaborate with and not to be seen as direct competition, sharing knowledge of the market place of CYP to work with. It was considered important to consider and share best

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practice of CYP working. The role of Arts Connect within the consortium is considered to be a vital one to help to facilitate and to give a perspective to practice beyond Shropshire.

It was considered important that objectives and an action plan of delivery is developed and a potential funding bid, whereby all consortium members can benefit is considered.

4.7 Conclusions and key recommendations for future plans and developmentCYP work is considered to be a high future priority for the majority of the consortium members. They all have future delivery plans and funding plans for delivery in the short term, however reduced funding and staff resources are the greatest threat to future delivery. There is a willingness however, to work together as a consortium, to develop delivery partnerships and to advocate for the impact of CYP work in the county.

From these conclusions the following recommendations are being made: An advocacy document for the current work of CYP in Shropshire is

developed, giving the work a strategic context within the Shropshire situational analysis and demonstrates the impact upon CYP of work that is being delivered. (the best practice case studies indicate impact as an example)

A strategy is developed to advocate for cultural CYP work, to lobby decision makers

Best practice working with CYP training is undertaken, particularly considering impact

Objectives and an action plan for delivery of the consortium’s work is put together

An additional consortium member is considered from the formal education sector in Shropshire

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5. SWOT analysis for the ConsortiumThe following is an analysis of the principle strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats posed to the consortium and CYP delivery in Shropshire.

Strengths Weaknesses- A good CYP offer in the county,

covering all art forms (to varying degrees)

- Good opportunities and engagement levels for CYP to view / attend cultural activity

- Good levels of commitment from the consortium members – including priority of CYP work

- Willingness of consortium members to work together

- Art form expertise esp. film, music, contemporary art, rural touring, theatre

- Some reach to national partners – BFI, national touring etc.

- Good network of county contacts amongst the consortium

- Limited visual arts and literature offer in county

- Limited opportunities for CYP to directly participate in activity

- Limited activity of organisations working directly with schools

- Limited opportunities for apprenticeships, work experience and skills based learning

- Capacity of some of the organisations to deliver CYP work

- Geographical cold spots within the county

- Limited articulation of the impact of CYP work

- Limited voice of CYP in the development and design of delivery

- Lack of regional and national profile of some of the organisations delivering CYP in the county

-Opportunities Threats

- To understand how cultural CYP work fits in with the wider strategy for CYP in Shropshire

- To advocate for cultural CYP in the county

- To build the profile for best practice rural CYP work to showcase nationally through a consortium approach

- To work more closely with Shropshire schools

- To work more closely with Shropshire commissioned youth services

- Willingness to learn from other best practice and undertake training together

- To consider new ways of working together as a consortium

- To consider other funding avenues as a consortium

- Reduction and cessation of some funding streams for consortium members

- Funding threat to partners that the consortium members work with

- Lack of profile of CYP within the county

- Lack of profile of Shropshire CYP work within the region and nationally

- Advocacy levels at decision making level in county is very low

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Appendix 2: Shropshire Council’s Local Joint Committee analysis of need

Existing Youth ActivitiesCurrent existing youth activities closely related to cultural activity and providers in each Local Joint Committee area as indicated by Shropshire Council’s analysis of need. Please note that the majority of these providers are private or voluntary providers.

AlbrightonPerforming Arts Youth Group

Bishop’s CastleSpArc Arts Projects (Connected to Bishop’s Castle school)

Church StrettonScrappiesStretton School of DanceArts Festival Schools Out

Craven ArmsDiane Griffiths School of Dance

Gobowen, St Martin’s areaSt Martin’s Saturday Performing Arts Club

LudlowInsteps Dance School

Much WenlockThe Edge Arts Centre (connected to William Brookes school)

OswestryJane Ridgewell School of DanceB-Boy and B-Dad Breakdance workshops

Local Youth PrioritiesThe analysis of need has also outlined the current Local Youth Priorities for each of the LJC areas. All of the areas highlighted facilities and/or play equipment for each of the areas. In addition the following areas have indicated the following additional priorities that can be relevant to cultural provision playing a role in helping to meet those priorities. The researcher excluded information such as ‘increase childcare facilities’:

Bayston Hill Provision of youth service

Bishop’s Castle Promote apprenticeship

opportunities to young people Review difficulty of accessing

services due to transport issues

Bridgnorth area Activities for children and young

people

Longden area Youth opportunities

Ludlow and Clee Area Provision of youth activities Enhance the skate park

appearance Encourage occupational skills

training

Market Drayton Youth opportunities

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Broseley Youth opportunities Youth groups and clubs Children and family activities Increased activities for young

people – including graffiti wall

Church Stretton area Increased activities for young

people including graffiti wall Support local schools

Cleobury Mortimer Youth opportunities and facilities

Craven Arms Facilities for young people

including youth clubs

Ellesmere Youth groups and clubs Children and family activities

Gobowen area Increased youth opportunities Children and family activities

Highley Youth opportunities

Much Wenlock area Youth opportunities Children and family activities

Shifnal area Community events and activities

Shrewsbury • Availability of community facilities for children and young people.• Positive engagement to reduce anti-social behaviour

Wem area Engagement with young people

regarding future facilities

Whitchurch To provide an improved range of

informal and informal opportunities to meet the needs of young people

Appendix 3: Other Cultural activity and youth activity

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providers in Shropshire (invited to participate in research)

Shropshire Youth Parliament Ludlow Fringe Festival Blackberry FairQube (Oswestry Community Action)SpArCFour and Twenty Arts The Edge Arts CentreMythstoriesFetch TheatreShrewsbury Cartoon Festival Church Stretton Arts FestivalMarket Drayton Community Arts Festival FATE (Festival at the Edge)Ludlow Youth FestivalHole in the Wall Youth ProjectShrewsbury Folk Festival Shropshire Music Trust Rachel Liggitt (dance) Appletree Theatre Kinokulture Tom Middleton (Shropshire Media Network) Ludlow Assembly Rooms Shrewsbury Heritage Arts for Health – Staffordhire and Shropshire HospitalsProject Group Visual Arts Network Shropshire Music Trust Wenlock Poetry Festival Minsterley & District EisteddfodEdward German Music Festival English Haydn Festival

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Appendix 4 Schools' Cultural Engagement Analysis

Previously Creative Partnership school

Recent Local Authority Funded school activity

Arts Award School (2013 / 14 validation)

Arts Mark school

Works with Shropshire Music service

Works with Shropshire Libraries service

Relationship with a consortium member

Number of pupils (at Jan 14)

Adcote School for Girls x 300Adams Sixth Form College*** x -Adderley Primary x x 41Albrighton Primary x 222Albrighton, St Mary's CE Primary X x 196Alveley Primary x 101Barrow CE Free School # X 67Baschurch Primary x X 146Beckbury CE Primary School X 53Belvedere Primary X 225Belvedere Secondary School x x X 804Bicton CE Primary School X x 143

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Bishop's Castle Community College X x 409Bishop's Castle Primary School x X x 145Bishop Hooper CE x 79Bitterley CE Primary X 98Bomere Heath C.E.Primary

x

120Bridgnorth, Castlefields Primary x 218Bridgnorth Endowed School # x x 877Bridgnorth Education Centre (TMBSS) x x -Bridgnorth, St John's Catholic Primary X x 210Bridgnorth, St Leonard's CE Primary x 305Bridgnorth, St Mary's Bluecoat CE Primary X x 134Brockton Primary School x 71Broseley Primary x X x 197Broseley, John Wilkinson Primary

x

X x 174Brown Clee CE Primary X 118

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Bryn Offa CE Primary 148Bucknell St Mary's CE Primary

x undertaken training Gold 40

Buildwas Primary x X 82Buntingsdale Primary x 49Burford CE Primary School

x

147

Cheswardine Primary xundertaken training x X 92

Chirbury Primary School x X 58Church Preen Primary School x x x 65Church Stretton School (Secondary) # X 633Church Stretton St Lawrence CE Primary x X x 266Claverley CE Primary 103Clee Hill Primary x undertaken

training X 114Cleobury Mortimer Primary

x

x 206Clive CE Primary X 75Clun St George's CE Primary

x

X x 88Clunbury Primary x x X 46Cockshutt CE Primary X 82

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Coleham Primary X x 414Condover CE Primary X x 119Corvedale Primary x x X 77Cressage, Christ Church Primary X x 88Criftins CE Primary x undertaken

training X 86Crowmoor Primary x X 155Dorrington CE Primary X x 46Ellesmere College** Gold 585Ellesmere Primary School x X x 327Evolution Pupil Referral Unit Bicton X x -Farlow CE Primary 42Gobowen School x X 125Grange Primary and Nursery #

x

x X 278Grange School (Secondary) # 383Greenacres Primary x X x 144Greenfields Primary x 342Grove Secondary School X 935Hadnall Primary x 80

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Hanwood, S Thomas & St Anne CofE Primary 107Harlescott Junior School

x undertaken training

x X x

312Highley Primary School

x

x 209Hinstock Primary X x 103Hodnet Primary X x 152Hope CE Primary x 39Idsall School # x X 1303Kinlet CE Primary X 62Kinnerley CE Primary X 85Lacon Childe School (Secondary) X 531Lakelands School (Secondary) # x x X x 552Longden CE Primary X x 106Longnor CE Primary X x 105Lower Heath CE Primary

x

87Ludlow Education Centre (TMBSS) x -Ludlow, St Laurence CE Primary X x 197Ludlow Infant & Nursery School x 176

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Ludlow Junior School x x x x 258Ludlow CE Secondary School

x

X 732Lydbury North C of E (A) Primary School

x undertaken training x 26

Market Drayton Infant and Nursery

x

x 266Market Drayton Junior School

x x undertaken training X x 339

Market Drayton Longlands Primary x 191Martin Wilson Primary X x 167Mary Webb School and Science College X 485Meole Brace CE Primary

x

X x 321Meole Brace School & Science College X 1219Mereside CE Primary X 225Minsterley Primary X x 139Morda CE Primary x 147Moreton Say CE Primary x 86Morville CE Primary X x 33Mount Pleasant Primary

x

229

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Much Wenlock Primary School

x

X x 152Myddle Primary x X 60Nesscliffe St Andrew's CE Primary X 62Newcastle CE Primary x 36Newtown CE Primary x X x 114Norbury Primary x undertaken

training X x 45Norton-in-Hales CE Primary x 63Oakmeadow C of E Primary & Nursery

x

X x 338Oldbury Wells School (Secondary) x x X 773Onny CE Primary x X x 55Oswestry Holy Trinity CE Primary X x 283Oswestry, Our Lady & St Oswald's Catholic Aided Primary X x 141Oswestry, The Meadows Primary x x 271Oswestry Woodside Primary # x 544Oxon CE Primary X x 400

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Pontesbury CE Primary

x

X 196Prees CE Primary x X x 146Priory School (Secondary) #

x

X 823Radbrook Primary X x 287Rushbury CE Primary X x 50St George's Junior X x 355St Giles' CE Primary X 326St John the Baptist CE Primary X 150St Lucia's CE Primary x X x 99St Martins School (3-16) X 287Selattyn CE Primary 88Severndale Specialist School

x x X

340Shawbury, St Mary's CE Primary

X

x 184Sheriffhales Primary X x 81

Shifnal Primaryx undertaken

trainingx X x

227Shifnal, St Andrew's CE Primary x 227Shrewsbury Cathedral Catholic Primary X 151

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Shrewsbury College of Art & Technology*** x -Shrewsbury Sixth Form College*** X x -Smallbrook School (Independent School for children with social and emotional difficulties) x 15Sir John Talbot's Technology College X x 477Stoke-on-Tern Primary 104Stiperstones CE Primary 38Stokesay Primary X x 127Stottesdon CE Primary school

x

X 89Sundorne Infants School and Nursery

x x

X x 254Sundorne Pupil Referral Unit x -Sundorne Schools & Sports College # X x 529Tilstock CE Primary 47

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The Corbet School (Secondary) # X 684The Meadows Community School

x

X 254The Marches School (Secondary) # * X x 1236The White House School x 143The Wilfred Owen School

x

X x 193Thomas Adams School*

x x

Xx

1377Trefonen CE Primary X 121Trinity CE Primary X 149Welshampton C.E. Primary School

x undertaken training 71

Wem, St Peter's CE Primary

x undertaken training x 404

Westbury, St Mary's CE Primary x 50West Felton C.E School

x

126Weston Lullingfields CE Primary 37Weston Rhyn Primary 138Whixall Primary School x x x x 125

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Whitchurch CE Infant & Nursery 257Whitchurch CE Junior X 317Whittington CE Primary X 214Whixall Primary School X 125Wistanstow CE Primary 62William Brookes School (Secondary) # X x 958Woodfield Infant X 267Woore Primary x 60Worfield Primary x X 191Worthen CE Primary X 64

# School with Academy status* former Arts Connect Hub School** current Arts Connect Hub School*** Sixth Form provision

no indication of cultural engagementlow levels of engagement – indication of only 1 form of cultural engagementindication of higher levels of cultural engagement

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Appendix 5: Case studies of the impact of Shropshire’s current CYP offer

Anecdotal examples supplied by consortium members where their work has made a difference to children and young people’s lives.

“I'm now in my second year at Oxford, and recently realised that I'm actually more willing to offer my honest opinions - both critical and celebratory - on theatre that I've seen, in comparison to many peers who can sometimes err towards blanket praise. I think this is almost entirely thanks to the standard of shows I saw through Arts Alive. I spent my childhood and adolescence watching such an array of dynamic, engaging, inventive performances - often discussing them with my parents on the drive home afterwards. It absolutely stimulated my love of theatre, and means I now have rather high standards when it comes to what kind of productions I find truly impressive!”

Creative Art After-school club at Harlescott Junior School was set up as a result of observations made in an existing art club at our school.We identified that SEND pupils’ needs were not being fully met due to the sizing of the group and also the level of work. We also noticed how a number of children on our SEND Register were not attending school clubs unless they were personally invited to club - this involves a separate letter been sent homes to individuals. The theory is that if you are personally invited you may feel more inclined to consider joining the club.Creative Arts group began on Monday 2nd June and is running for six weeks. In September we plan to continue with such a group each term. We know that art is important for our children; in art lessons we've seen our children deeply involved in art demonstrating careful concentration and absorbing new sensations as they experiment with a range of media. By offering Art Club and Creative Arts group to our pupils we are providing further opportunities for children to gain useful life skills. We encourage them to be as creative as possible and have been fortunate enough to gain the support and resources of Scrappies, from Church Stretton. One pupil, who attends this group, an eleven year old female (PUPIL C) has benefitted greatly from this experience. It has become a highlight of her week. She now looks forward to coming along to club. She is socialising with new friends across the school and is able to develop her creative skills and challenge her imagination too.

Pupil C has been able to socialise with other children from our school through this group. She has engaged in friendly conversation with both children and adults. She particularly enjoyed the mask work we did. She responded well when choosing materials and was quite choosy. She knew exactly what she wanted. She demonstrated good listening skills too. She presented her final work in a

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school assembly (of 320 pupils), something which is a bit of an ordeal for her. She has enjoyed searching the crafts collections for just the right material for her design. She liked to comment on the texture of the materials.Pupil C was very good at testing possibilities. She spent time thinking about exactly which material would be best for her mermaid. She could not be persuaded to change to something new once her mind was made up. She could give good reasons for the suitability of her choices. Comments like “I don’t want to use the wool for the mermaids hair, that will not curl. Ribbon does curl”. “Should I use a shorter piece of blue silk for the mermaids body?” Pupil C was regularly engaged in the discovery of "how" and "why." Creative Arts group allowed Pupil C to try new ideas, to experiment, to solve problems.

Creative Arts allowed our pupils to see they have control over their efforts. Through the art sessions, they also practiced sharing and taking turns, as well as appreciating one another's efforts. At the end of each session the leader of the group celebrated the children’s successes. The leader celebrated individual uniqueness as well as success and accomplishment, all part of our aim to build self-confidence. Seeing Pupil C beam with pride at the end of a session was just lovely to see.

Cutting, sticking, peeling, painting provided opportunities for Pupil C to improve her fine-motor skills. It sometimes caused frustration but it was worth it.

Creative Art club has developed Pupil C’s child's creativity. Rather than being told what to do, answers and directions have come from her. Art is an experience that requires freethinking, experimentation, and analysis. This club has provided a positive experience for Pupil C and all of the other children in this club. We shall definitely provide this club in the next academic year.

Summer Reading Challenge

Each year Shropshire Libraries join in with the national Summer Reading Challenge for young people, organised by The Reading Agency.

What is the challenge?

Children aged 4 to 12 are challenged to read six books over the summer holidays, and in return they receive rewards and stickers and, those who complete the challenge receive a certificate and a medal. Younger children are not left out as they have the chance to join the Bookstart Bear Club, a year-round scheme available to all 0 to 4 year olds. Both schemes are completely free and really easy to join.

Not only does the challenge offer rewards, incentives and opportunities to engage with each other at library events, but national research has also shown that it prevents the dip in reading ability that can occur over the summer holidays.

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Circus Stars 2011

Between July and September this year over 2000 children throughout Shropshire took part in the Circus Stars Summer Reading Challenge and more than 50% of them read six books. In addition to this over 2000 people took part in more than 60 exciting Circus Stars events and as an added bonus 15 young people were recruited as Circus Star volunteers and between them they contributed more than 140 hours of their time to the project. Once again, the Summer Reading Challenge has proved to be a resounding success in Shropshire. Here are some of the comments received from children who took part in Circus Stars:

“I thought that Circus Stars was great. I liked the prizes and the books were fab”.

“I feel really proud!”

“I loved Circus Stars because it gave me a challenge over the summer.”

“I didn’t like the theme but I liked doing the challenge.”

“The books I read this year were very different to what I would usually pick but I enjoyed them all.”

and this is what some of the adults who were involved said:

“The library staff and helpers were all dedicated to giving the children a brilliant time, face painting, crafts, children’s entertainer and storytellers, not to mention sweets, biscuits and drinks. I took my granddaughter along for the event and we both loved it”.

What a fabulous day of activities, we really enjoyed it”.

“You always put on great activity days – this is one of the best ever”.

“What a wonderful atmosphere when I entered the library today”.

“Thank you for today, the circus workshop was fantastic, especially the juggling.”

“My son felt extremely proud of his reading and the added incentive helped.”

“An excellent scheme. My daughter loves libraries and selected books she may not have otherwise noticed.”

“This years SRC subject has been one of the best, and we have been joining in for years”.

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“It’s great to have the Reading Challenge in the summer holidays. We have fun, enjoy the books and learn new things.”

“An excellent way to show children that reading can be a ‘summer escape’. We always look forward to and are stimulated by the challenge. The graphics this year were particularly excellent. The librarian’s enthusiasm is much appreciated.”

“The challenge was brilliant. We had fun choosing the books as well as talking about the stories. It’s a terrific motivation and a lovely shared experience.”

“It’s a wonderful scheme which has really encouraged both of my children to read for themselves.”

“There is one boy who finds it very difficult to engage with work in class. He can be distracting to others and lacks focus. He was so enthused by what he was doing in the workshop that he ended up being the child who had a go at woodcarving and did a great job. When usually he would be trying to get someone else’s attention in a variety of ways he kept his head down for a long time and concentrated on what he was doing. His handwriting isn’t very neat as he doesn’t always form letters correctly and yet the bird that he carved was delicate and beautiful. Mostly importantly he had learnt a new skill in a short amount of time and had really enjoyed the experience.”

When Lewis first got involved with our programme he was part of the ASDAN programme, an accreditation scheme that is offered by schools to young people with special educational needs, or to those that might not achieve well if following more academic pathways. Lewis first became involved in our youth filmmaking programme through a First Light funded film production. This provided opportunity for him to work alongside professional filmmakers and animators and to experiment, and develop his own creative style. Lewis quickly demonstrated keen enthusiasm, excellent commitment, and was a great team player. The film he worked on won the 2012 Film Nation Award. His experience gave him confidence and he then applied to our BFI Film Academy an intensive, industry standard, talent development programme which specialises in animation. This opportunity afforded him (and us) the chance to discover he had a particular aptitude for CGI and for cell animation. Through participation in the Academy, Lewis’ network of friends (in particular those actively engaged in the arts) grew and he became part of a WM wide network.The BFI Film Academy then invited us to nominate a participant to be mentored by a BAFTA member and we put forward Lewis.Lewis continued to respond to further creative filmmaking opportunities and on leaving school chose to study media arts at the local FE College.As an Academy alumni member, we then encouraged Lewis to apply to one of the Academy residential courses (a highly competitive scheme) and earlier this year he was successful and was selected for the Animation Camp in Bristol. He described his time there as “the best experience of my life!”.

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Michael, one of our 2013-2014 young writers was working in the late night garage at Craven Arms and hating it when he joined our young writers group. He rightly could recognize he had skill but lacked confidence in his writing. Through the young writers programme he gained confidence in both his abilities and himself. He wrote his play, a ghost story, whilst on shift at the garage which formed part of our young writers festival week, as well as one of the monologue pieces from Stores from the Street. After the young writers festival he quit his job and applied to Universities. He has just been accepted with an unconditional offer to the Central Film School of London on a screenwriting course. We are in awe of this journey and his determination and commitment.

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